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Oakwood Pizza Box team opening new wine bar
Every dog has its day, and, now, Oakwood Pizza Box owners Anthony and Brett Guerra’s golden retriever Pierre (a nod to the couple’s fave Champagne producer, Pierre Péters) is having his.
Slated to bow in Raleigh Iron Works early this summer, so-named St. Pierre, their new wine bar and shop mixes a bit of humor around their dog’s occasional unsaintly behavior with their devotion to great wine.
Anthony admittedly “didn’t know anything about wine” when he started buying it nearly 15 years ago, but spent hours devouring every book he could find on the subject. “I’m a history major,” he says, “so I would read books, create reports and then save information.”
“I want to eat a pizza and drink great wine.” —Anthony Guerra
Fast-forward to today, where years of intense study (and tasting) has translated into a pizza shop with a refined wine selection that rivals any restaurant in town. “I want to eat a pizza and drink great wine,” he shrugs, but says Pizza Box only has room for 8-foot shelves of wine, which is “not enough.” From this, a plan to give the wine a bigger stage and the wineries more recognition was hatched and the idea for St. Pierre was born.
Wine aficionados can expect a range of vino from small producers in California—you may not know them, but you should, according to Anthony—plus labels from Italy, France and beyond you can sip there or take home for later. “I want the experience of drinking there to be phenomenal,” emphasizes Anthony, stressing Pizza Box’s ethos of being fun, low-key and having an emphatic disdain of anything pretentious will carry over to St. Pierre.
As for the vibe? The aim is a mix of classy yet comfortable with great tunes in the background encouraging neighborhood hangs that stretch from the afternoons well into the evenings.
But apologies to pizza enthusiasts—there won’t be a kitchen in the wine bar. Instead, expect a de rigueur mix of light snacks on offer. Nevertheless, “I’m sure there’s going to be a way to get pizza in there,” hints Anthony.
And while Pierre himself won’t be at the bar, his namesake Champagne will always be on hand. Paws for applause. oakwoodpizzabox.com
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